The Adelaide Hills Farmcast

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Welcome to the Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast – the monthly podcast where we let you know what we’ve been up to on our farm and on our clients' farms to help inspire and guide you on what makes sense for you to be doing on your farm or lifestyle property.

In this episode we explore two services that will help you manage your small acreage farm or property more efficiently and effectively; cow and sheep scanning, and integrating electric fencing.

Our special guest host is Steve Davis from The Adelaide Show and Talked About Marketing, who also raises the issue of "backyarders" popping up in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu area, undercutting farm services professionals and putting properties and property owners at risk.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for future episodes, please send us an email.

00:00 Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast July 2023 Edition

Introduction

Amid a busy week on the farm, Belle also took time out to attend an Adelaide Business Hub, Women In Business event in Victor Harbor.

She got to meet Small Business Minister, Andrea Michaels, and Adelaide Business Hub Chief Executive, Lyn Hay.

Belle and Steve discuss this briefly and if you'd like to learn more about the Women In Business mentoring, which Steve conducts as part of the program, email him at steve@talkedaboutmarketing.com and he can point you in the right direction.

04:05 Backyarders At Work In The Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Region

Steve asks Belle to reflect on the rise of backyarders who are throwing some tools into a ute or onto a trailer and undercutting farm services professionals in the area.

She says she's all for "having a go" but it can be a short-sighted decision to opt for these casual operators due to varying degrees of experience, lack of insurances (to protect them and you), and possible lack of a safety ethos when it comes to selecting materials on your property.

10:36 Cow And Ewe Scanning

Belle explains the latest addition to the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farm Services list of offering, a service scanning cattle and sheep for pregnancy.

As opposed to the old way of scanning involving hands and very long gloves, Belle explains how a probe is used to provide a scan that is similar to an ultrasound.

The big benefit that comes from knowing if cows or sheep are pregnant is that decisions can be made quickly and efficiently, as Belle discusses.

She notes that vets will always have a role but her scanning service can bring peace of mind quickly.

22:14 Electric fencing on your property

Belle explains the benefits of incorporating electric fencing, whether for new fences or for retro fitting existing fencing.

She says this is part of a trend to move away from barbed wire.

Steve is surprised to learn that the "zap" of an electric fence is not there to be punitive but rather to be educational.

As Belle explains, most livestock are very smart and once they have the first couple of zaps, they learn that fences are a no go, especially when coupled with some visual cues.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In this episode we reflect on our Farm Fencing Demo Days that were held on May 12 and 13, right after our Tractoring For Women course on May 11, 2023.

Our special guests for this episode are Daniel Stuart from Gallagher, along with Alex Thomas from #PlantASeedForSafety, Jackie Davies from Emmetts, and Tim Glover from Ramsay Bros.

So, join us as we put all our cards on the table and give you a good sense of what's in store as we try to be the rising tide that lifts all boats for fellow contractors and fellow small acreage farmers and hobby farmers in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for future episodes, please send us an email.

00:00 Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast June 2023 Edition
Introduction

Just after packing up on Saturday evening, May 13, Belle Baker sat down with Daniel Stuart from Gallagher to talk about electric fencing and other items of discussion arising from the Farm Fencing Field Days.

The discussion covers some interesting insights about structuring electric fences and an innovative rat and mouse trap.

Plus we hear from some attendees at the Farm Fencing Field Days.

Alex Thomas, #PlantASeedForSafety

The wonderful Alex Thomas, #PlantASeed4Safety, spoke at the Friday Farm Fencing Demo Day to raise the concept of realistic work and health safety for Farm Fencing Contractors.

As you'll hear, the concepts were surprising, and well received, and raised questions, which is the precise outcome Alex wants. After all, where else do down-to-earth people actively start a conversation about WHS?

25:51 Farmcast Interview: Jackie Davies, Emmetts, John Deere

Belle Interviews Jackie Davies, from Emmetts Murray Bridge, who was on site for the Tractoring For Women workshop.

You'll hear a little bit more about her farming background and the importance of tractor familiarisation.

35:02 Farmcast Interview: Tim Glover, Ramsay Bros, Case IH

Belle Interviews Tim Glover, from Ramsay Bros, who was also on site for the Tractoring For Women workshop.

You'll hear a little bit more about his farming background, Belle's very personal motivation for making Tractoring For Women happen, and some common sense discussion about owning and operating tractors.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In this episode we dive deeper into our Farm Fencing Demo Days to be held on May 12 and 13, right after our Tractoring For Women course on May 11, 2023.

Our special guest for this episode is the star attraction of our Farm Fencing Demo Days, Tim Thompson.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for future episodes, please send us an email.

00:00 Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast May 2023 Edition

Introduction

Tractoring For Women - Thank You Jeremy Clarkson

I snagged the name ‘tractoring’ from the hilarious television series Clarkson’s Farm.

In episode one, Jeremy Clarkson coined the term tractoring and it’s stuck with me!

If you haven’t seen Clarkson’s Farm, you’re missing an absolute treat. Love him or hate him, he has done a wonderful job highlighting farming practices in the UK and the red-tape and archaic laws that farmers have to deal with to get their products to market.

There are 3 seasons and they can be viewed on Amazon Prime.

So, if you’re a little like Jeremy Clarkson and you have ‘truly no idea what to do’, Tractoring For Women is the workshop for you.

We’re going to take you through everything you need to drive your tractor safely, and nothing you don’t. We’ll have at least four different types or brands of tractors on site and with careful planning, we’ll match you up with a tractor similar to what you have at home.

Initially, David Evans will take you through the basics of where everything is on a tractor, prestart checks and what you need to know before driving. David will work with our guest, Alex Thomas, the dynamo behind #plantaseedforsafety and #savealifelistentoyourwife and together they will highlight the risks and how to prevent machinery accidents on farm.

After lunch, its time to get in a tractor for a test drive. You’ll be in the hands of the dealership reps – no one will know their tractors better than them and you’ll learn how to start, stop and drive and to operate the front end loader. You can have a go at moving hay bales with the fork and you’ll learn how to swap between the forks and bucket. We’ll also have a slasher on site so you can learn how to attach three point linkage implements.

It's going to be a wonderful day – we’re so grateful for the support of our guest speaker, Alex Thomas and the Dealerships that are supplying tractors: Emmetts Oakbank, Ramsay Brothers, G & J East, and ND & JA Giles.

Farm Fencing Demo Days

Friday 12th of May is our Farm Fencing Demo Day specifically for Farm Fencing Contractors. The Saturday 13th of May is for the general public and anyone who wants to learn the fencing basics.

We are so fortunate to have Tim Thompson, the poster boy for Australian fencing and you tube sensation with over 50,000 followers here over the two days and instead of me telling you all about the events, I’m going to let you hear it straight from Tim.

04:10 Farmcast Interview: Tim Thompson

Belle Interviews Tim Thompson ahead of our Farm Fencing Days.

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Welcome to the Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast – the monthly podcast where we let you know what we’ve been up to on farm and for our clients and what makes sense for you to be doing on your farm or lifestyle property.

In this episode we lead off with our big news. We're announcing Farm Fencing Demo Days to be held between 11 and 13 May, 2023.

Plus we have other on-farm insights and two interviews: Emma Gilbert and John Pickard.

So, join us as we take a broader look at farm operations and focus on one or two key things that you need to address as a part of running your small acreage farm throughout the year.

We have plenty of fodder to work through, but if you’d like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email.

00:00 Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast April 2023 Edition

Introduction

Farm Fencing Demo Days

The big thing I want to announce this month is our Farm Fencing Demo Day’s to be held between 11 and 13 May 2023.

First cab off the rank is a ‘Tractoring for Women’ workshop that will cover everything you need to do to understand your tractor and safely undertake practical jobs around the farm. We’ll cover prestart checks; lifting, moving and stacking hay bales safely; swapping out the bucket for forks and attaching a slasher with 3-point-linkage. And when you book in, we’ll ask you to select the tractor brand and size and that’s what we’ll have on site for you to learn in.

And we’ll do all this between 10 and 2. Sound good? I know I’m keen to get to know our tractor better without all the dull mechanic stuff that just bores me to tears, and I love the idea of being able to do more tractoring myself!

And we’ve pulled in the big guns – we have invited Tim Thompson, an ag communicator and educator from Victoria and with over 50,000 followers on You Tube!

The next couple of days we have planned will be truly immersive – we want you to get your hands dirty, try out different tools and materials and have a go at straining fences. You can learn how to repair your own fences and what you’ll need in your DIY kit.

All this and so much more will be on offer and yes, these two days are free!

We truly believe a rising tide lifts all boats. Come and learn from the experts, talk to suppliers directly and go away with the confidence of a kid in a Superman costume!

And we’ve invited our friends at DART Agricultural Drones to come along as well. They’ll demonstrate their new 40L Drone and you can see for yourselves if this method of spraying, seeding or fertilising spreading is suitable for you

More information will be released soon so please make sure you subscribe to our e-newsletter so that you don’t miss out!

Cattle

Yes, it’s a falling market for both sheep and cattle. However we had to cut our losses and sell the six I spoke about last month.

Once we had our 24, much quieter heifers at home, we left them to acclimatise in the yards for a couple of days (with plenty of good hay and water) and then we vaccinated, drenched with a good 5 in 1 and back lined them. We also tagged them so that we can easily identify them in the paddock. I mentioned last month that when buying in stock, we presume they haven’t been vaccinated. This information ‘should’ be on the NVD you receive but often it’s not.

The other thing we did was invite the lovely Emma Gilbert along so that she could get hands-on experience working with cattle. Emma has plans to breed Highland Cattle and already has semen and embryo’s sitting on ice. She has been slowly building her plan over many years and is nearly ready to execute. She hadn’t worked with cattle for many years (although she did participate in the SA Heifer Expo as I did when she was younger) – but Emma was so generous with her time and knowledge for this month’s podcast it was only natural that we would want to give back.

Needless to say her stock handling skills were good and she picked everything up very quickly.

I’ll talk more about Emma a bit later in the podcast.

Hay

Now I think I mentioned in the March episode of the Farmcast that the next thing to happen with our hay paddocks will be sowing.

Pods and I went for a walk over the paddocks a few days ago and he made an interesting observation. Some of the weeds are coming back – but not enough that it would warrant re-spraying.

You see, everything has to be weighed up. Does the cost of spraying the paddocks again out weigh the benefit? It’s always a balancing act between producing the best hay we can, the input costs of producing the hay and good stewardship of the land.

We’re due for some rain this week so that will probably freshen up the weeds again and we won’t be sowing until mid April. I’ll let you know how we get on with that next month.

Summer Crop

I was going to tell you about this fab summer crop that is planted out the back and was here when we bought the property in December. It’s called a Fast Summer blend and is a mix of 20% Brassica, 20% Chicory and 60% Millet.

And both the heifers we just sold and the ones we have just bought are thriving on it. It looks a bit straggly, the long stalks of the brassica is an unusual look for a fodder crop but we reckon these new heifers have easily put on 10 kg’s in the week they’ve been here.

The rule of thumb is around 1kg a day for young stock that are on a rising plane of nutrition.

We’re going to be following up with the supplier of this mix and talking to other local seed suppliers to find out more about this super blend of fodder and we really need to understand what goes in next when it’s done. We’ll share what we find out and what our plan is in the next Farmcast.

Fence Posts

The team have just finished a very sexy fencing project at Yankallila using Tanaposts. Tanaposts are similar to creo posts but wait for it – they have 90% less exposure to free creosote, have a vastly reduced odour, vastly reduced skin irritation upon handling and they’re dry to touch.

The big difference that you’ll notice is the colour. It is a lighter colour than traditional creosote. So if you’re all about looks (and honestly we believe that fencing should be all about safety and fulfilling a purpose) this may not be the product for you. You can always paint it, your local agri reseller will have suitable products that you can paint on if it worries you too much. But here’s the news; both creo and CCA WILL be fazed out soon. Its time to start looking to the future.

The guys have enjoyed this project – no one enjoys a project with traditional creosote – and the finished product looks fab. I’ll put photos in the show notes.

And I should mention; we’ll have the Tanapost team at our Farm Fencing Demo Days so you can get more information and make up your own mind. In the meantime, your local FP Ag branch are selling Tanaposts and should be able to help you with any queries you may have.

10:23 Farmcast Interview: Emma Gilbert, The Farm, Clarendon

I caught up with Emma Gilbert of The Farm, Clarendon.

Emma produces Heritage breed poultry and it the only producer in Australia who sells day-old chickens and freights them across the country!

She is incredibly generous with her knowledge and is now running workshops to help people new to poultry or keeping chickens.

33:49 Farmcast Interview: John Pickard, The Australian Fencing Historian

And then we met up with an Australian treasure, John Pickard. John is an (or is he THE) Australian Fencing Historian!

He has had a remarkable career as a vegetation ecologist and geomorphologist both here and in Antarctica and that led him to researching the role of fences in farming systems in Australia. He has written several books including the ‘History of Australian Wire Strainers’ and there is a new one on the way.

The interview was recorded at The Ed in Adelaide and our apologies if the background noise is annoying. Who knew The Ed would be so busy at 6pm on a Monday!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farmcast – the monthly podcast where we let you know what we’ve been up to on farm and what makes sense for you to be doing on your farm or lifestyle property.

Over the past 12 months we’ve run through an almanac of farm management tasks to do every month but now we’re going to take a broader view.

Also, we have some guest interviews to take us deeper into some very timely topics.

So, join us as we take a broader look at farm operations and focus on one or two key things that you need to address as a part of running your small acreage farm throughout the year.

We have plenty of fodder to work through, but if you’d like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email.

Thanks for listening to the Adelaide Hills & Fleurieu Farmcast. We hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s episode and jotted down a few things for your to-do-list.

00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast March Edition

Introduction

00:50 Topics

Horses

Japanese encephalitis in horses. Look for symptoms.

Summer weed spraying

Ours is all done. Finally got our hay bales off and able to spray.

And we’ve just had lime added to our two hay paddocks at a rate of 2 tonnes to the hectare.

Pods and Craig are out spraying Potato weed, caltrop blanket weed, buckbush, milk thistle stick wart for clients today and tomorrow they are heading just down the road to spray Cooch & Kiakoya.

Heiffers

Our heifers – many lessons learned:

Don’t buy the ones you don’t want
When you get them onto your property, assume they haven’t been vaccinated and administer a 5 in 1 vaccine immediately followed by the booster shot 4-6 weeks later
And get all instructions from your vet in writing. Ie. Whether you’re administering an anti inflammatory every day for 3 days or once every 3 days.

And consider getting an autopsy. We did, courtesy of Dr Jeremy Rogers, Senior Veterinary Officer PIRSA.

Vaccination protocol for cattle

Biosecurity. The document highlights on-farm biosecurity practices as key to:

producing healthy livestock
maintaining access to premium markets
combatting the constant threat of exotic and endemic diseases

More spraying insights

Talking of spraying, we met up with the powerhouse duo behind DART recently. Dart, or Drone agricultural remote technology is a new operator in south Australia offering spraying, seeding and mapping via drone technology. These guys can get your spraying or seeding program done quicker and with more accuracy than traditional boom sprays and they specialise in managing hard to access areas like steep hills and river beds and of course, they don’t need to worry about getting bogged in winter!

You can find more about them via their website: droneagremotetech.com.au.

WOTL Event

I attended a WOTL event: Back to basics best practice farm animal husbandry, Kuitpo. If you'd like more information, talk a look at the WOTL website.

11:40 Farmcast Interview: Michael Bowden, Hills Farm Supplies

Many of you would know Bodes or Michael Bowden from Hills Farm Supplies in Mount Barker.

Bodes and Pods went to Roseworthy together and we caught up with him to talk about capeweed and the best time to undertake a spray program.

24:16 Farmcast Interview: Anthony Chick from Optiweigh

I was lucky enough to attend the sold out Ag tech conference, Evoke Ag in Adelaide last week.

Whilst I did enjoy the conference, it was the Exhibition and start-up alley that I found interesting. There were some fabulous technologies on display and some fabulous concepts that are well beyond my pay grade.

I met with Anthony Chick from Optiweigh and asked him about his in-paddock weighing system and most importantly, what the benefits of the technology are.

30:37 Farmcast Interview: Dwain Duxson from Farm Tender

I also caught up with Dwain Duxson from Farm Tender.

Farm Tender is an online sales platform for all things agriculture.

His insights into the ag-tech sector and whats next for agriculture are definitely worth listening to.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to this month’s Adelaide Hills Farmcast or should I say Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farmcast!

In this episode of the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Farmcast, I go through our monthly almanac – a list of things to consider doing on your small acreage property and I talk with Paul Clifford from Raine and Horne Rural SA, based in Strathalbyn, about selling rural properties and what potential buyers are looking for.

Also, this episode rounds out our complete twelve months set of farm management tasks in our farm almanac. We’ve deliberately made them evergreen so that any July episode you listen to in any July will be relevant to that month. And they’ll be available forever.

But starting next month, we’ll take a broader look at farm operations and focus on one or two key things that small acreage farmers need to address as a part of running their farms throughout the year.

We have plenty of fodder to work through, but if you’d like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email.

00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast February Edition

Introduction

01:00 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Cattle

February is stud bull selling season. The Stock Journal Beef Week 2023 this Friday the third with the Fleurieu, Adelaide Hills and Loxton cattle studs having their open day on Sunday 5th February.
If you haven’t been to a beef field day, its well worth a look. Cattle studs are clustered into areas so that you can easily spend the day attending 4 – 5 different properties. Here in the Fleurieu, Adelaide Hills and Loxton we’ve got 11 enterprises opening their doors (or should I say gates) to the public. Some cattle studs offer the ability to buy cattle on the day, others use it as a prelude to their on-farm sales held at a later date. Of course, you will need a PIC number if you intend to make a purchase.
And there won’t be just bulls on display. Many studs take the opportunity to display their breeding stock (cows and heifers) and sometimes there will be a pen of weaners there as well. Breeders generally take any opportunity they can to show what their cattle can achieve in the saleyards or abattoirs. The Stock Journal produce a guide to Beef Week so you can map out which properties are on display in your area.

All this talk of stud bulls and cattle sales may have you wondering what the difference is between stud cattle and commercial cattle?

Whilst I haven’t been able to find an Oxford Dictionary definition on what stud cattle are versus commercial cattle, I can explain it by saying that stud cattle are tightly held, lines of single breed cattle eg. Angus that are selected and bred with clear genetic advantages in mind. The cattle and their dams and sires will be registered with the breed association and this registration can be transferred to a person who purchases the cattle.

It’s like a family tree or ancestory. Stud cattle are generally sold with accompanying Estimated Breeding Values (or EBV’s) which are measurements of genetic potential that can be used to assess an animal’s breeding merit for a specific trait. For example birth weight (low birth weights are desirable as they represent calving ease however it may also indicate a later growth pattern), docility (quiet cattle are easier and safer to handle and tend to put more weight on more quickly. Interestingly, docility is a highly heritable trait like coat colour and so can be improved genetically with good breed selection), 400 Day Weight (the higher this figure is, the quicker you can potentially get a vealer to market) and Eye Muscle Area (the larger, more positive this is the more favourable as consumers will pay a premium for this cut of beef).

I have a tendancy to get a bit excited when I talk about EBV’s and it is tempting to get carried away with the data, but you must always look at the animal in front of you and take a visual assessment into account, together with the EBV’s when purchasing stud cattle.

Unlike stud cattle, commercial cattle are often a cross between two or more breeds for example Angus and Murray Grey Cross. This is done to improve the hybrid vigour with the goal of producing more weight per day of age. Commercial cattle rarely have EBV’s because other than average weight gains, few other traits are recorded. Stud cattle are generally considered genetically superior to commercial cattle and if being sold as stud cattle i.e. registration of that animal is transferred to the new owner, then that animal ‘should’ be a good representative of the breed with few visual or structural flaws.

If considering buying cattle for your property, its always a good idea to seek independent advice, stock agents are a good starting point and be prepared to pay more for stud cattle than commercial cattle.

If this is something you’d like more information on, you can go to futurebeef.com.au and navigate to the resources.

Spraying

Pods is up at Summertown today putting the finishing touches on a fence around a house paddock, but I did ask him to give me a run down on the spraying jobs he’s got booked in for February.
As soon as it rains, and the summer weeds have freshened up (which will help with the uptake of chemical), Pods is heading out to spray a few properties for cooch grass, potato weed, wire weed, cowtrop and melons. Particularly for the cooch grasses, he will be using a heavy brew of Glyphostate or Crucial 600, Garlon, LI-700 and Ammonium Sulphate.
It will take a few goes to get rid of the cooch grass (we’ve got several applications planned for our back paddock throughout 2023), but the other weeds should only need one hit before the paddocks are ready to sow again.

Rabbits

This is something I am not going to miss! I haven’t spotted a single rabbit on our property at Currency Creek and I’d really like to keep it that way!
The Hills and Fleurieu landscape Board are running their rabbit baiting program again this month and we would encourage anyone with a rabbit problem to give it a go. (I’ve put a link to their registration page in the show notes). As we talked about last year in our April Edition of the Farmcast with Rob Murphy, you really need to attack rabbits on a number of fronts. One single method will not be enough to eradicate the problem.

Water

This month, we’re replacing all the round plastic troughs on the property with more robust, cement troughs. I can acknowledge that plastic troughs have a place, but they really don’t hold up when you’ve got cattle drinking from them all the time.
When we go to do this, I’ll take some footage and show you how we prepare the site with rubble so that its flat and slightly raised and how we install the float so that the trough is always kept full, but not overflowing.

Hay

We are always talking about the importance of asking for a feed test when you’re purchasing hay.
A few weeks ago with had Alice Morley from FP AG come out and take samples of the hay that we will have for sale. The results make interesting reading – protein levels are down because it was such a long wet season and there was such a delay in getting the hay cut and baled. But we’re not alone, most hay producers are in the same boat and at least when you buy our hay, you can determine for yourself if you want it for your horses, sheep, cattle etc.
I took some footage of Alice taking samples, it’s a very easy process that only takes about 30 minutes. I’ll post it here soon, and in the socials.

08:54 Farmcast Interview: Paul Clifford from Raine and Horne Rural SA

The episode closes with my interview with Paul Clifford from Raine and Horne Rural SA.

In this chat I ask Paul about selling rural properties and what potential buyers are looking for.

He even helped me move some bales around our paddock!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This month, our Adelaide Hills Farmcast is a joint recording with Steve Davis from The Adelaide Show Podcast.

We still cover our monthly almanac of things to focus on during the upcoming 4-6 weeks on your property but Steve also gets us to reflect on what it's like to be farmers for his city-based audience.

The almanac has been structured into five things to think about over the summer break.

Plus we also announce that we've moved to Currency Creek and can now work with propery owners and small acreage farmers on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

We hope you find this helpful and we wish you a prosperous New Year.

00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast January Edition

Introduction

03:26 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm CalendarWater Security For Summer

If you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water every day or every second day.
Some problems can be assessed from a distance, but not all.
There are a number of remote water level sensors on the market and if this is the direction you want to go down please do your research. Some are better than others. We have been very impressed by the Water Rat sold by Farmco.
Clean out troughs regularly and slip in some Copper Sulphate tablets.

Bushfire Risk

Have you done what you can? If a bushfire goes through your property can you honestly say that there was nothing more that you could have done?
Spraying/slashing fencelines.
Farm fire fighting units are invaluable. The CFS has a Farm Fire Units Handbook on their website and we would encourage every landowner to read it – even if you haven’t got or don’t intend to have a farm fire unit.
We would encourage you to install both the Alert SA app and CFS app on your smartphone.
And only drive diesel vehicles around paddocks during the fire season. According to the CFS website – vehicle and engine exhausts cause about 25 fires each year in rural South Australia.

Summer Weed Spraying

If you’ve cut your grass for hay, now is the ideal time to spray glyphosate to clear up the residual weeds. Basically keeping the paddocks brown to conserve moisture for the following planting season.
Continue to spray your box thorns, blackberries and gorse.
Paddy melons can be sprayed or spray-grazed.
Soil Testing.

Home Garden And House Paddock

Mulch your garden beds and fruiting trees – careful to leave an area at the base of the trunk to prevent rot.
Always water plants at the base and consider where the water is running off. Creating a small dam to prevent water wastage is a great idea.
Clear debris, limbs, old wood – anything flammable from around buildings. Not only does this reduce the likelihood of burning your dwellings, but it also reduces the spots that snakes can hide.
Rooftop sprinkler systems are invaluable.
Mosquitoes – we are about to put a small fountain in our lagoon to reticulate water which should prevent or at least reduce the amount of mosquito lavae sitting on the surface.

Going Away? Let Your Neighbours Know

As we mentioned above, if you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water.
Also, having someone monitor for any unusual activity is crucial. We hear far too many stories, including a friend of ours recently, who have had their animals stolen and house and sheds ransacked.
Consider putting locks on external gateways.

37:01 Farmcast Interview with Steve Davis

In this interview, Steve Davis from The Adelaide Show Podcast chats with Belle and Pods about what life is like on a farm over the summer holidays.

He also delves into the impacts of the River Murray flooding, and other topics.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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This month, our Adelaide Hills Farmcast spans topics from goats to Salvation Jane to horse racing.

To be more specific about horse racing, we shine a spotlight on turf preparation at the Oakbank Racing Club, with Pods taking some time to talk with Oakbank CEO, Shane Collins, about what it takes to get the track ready for summer racing.

I also sit down with the lovely Megan Miller. Megan has several breeds of goats including dairy goats and miniature goats. One of the things I love about goats is they have a tendency to eat unusual things – including Salvation Jane, despite it being moderately toxic to them!

We’ll cover that, plus your summer preparations in the Almanac so lets stop kidding around and get started!

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast December Edition

Introduction

01:32 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

01:37 Water Security For Summer

If you’re planning to go away over the summer, please ensure you have someone available to check your stock water and monitor for any unusual activity. We hear far too many stories, including a friend of ours recently, who have had their animals stolen and house and sheds ransacked. It’s an awful situation to be in but you can reduce the chances of it happening to you if you have someone to take on caretaker duties. You could work in with your neighbour or have someone to stay for the time you are away. Early detection of problems with your irrigation can prevent harm to your animals and even if the person keeping an eye on your property can’t fix irrigation problems, they can call someone who can.
There are a number of remote water level sensors on the market and if this is the direction you want to go down please do your research. Some are better than others. We have been very impressed by the Water Rat sold by Farmco.
It is by far THE EASIEST water sensor to set up, you literally just pop it in the trough! It recently won Gold in the product design category of the Australian Good Design Awards earlier this year and other than the absolute simplicity of the design, the other magnificent feature is that you simply pick it up when you move stock out of one paddock and take it with you and drop it in the trough in the next paddock. It’s a subscription product however you do get a 30 day free trial. And what better time of year to give it a go. I think the Water Rat has a lot of potential and if you give it a go, please let me know!

04:05 Mosquitos And Encephalitis

I don’t know what the official record will say, but I don’t think we’ve had a Spring at all! It’s still wet under foot and you can see runoff seeping out of hills and flowing down roadsides all over the hills. The Bureau of Meteorology is telling us that it will be a wet summer and Pirsa and the Department of Health have highlighted the increased risk of contracting Japanese Encephalitis.
The main high risk areas will be around the flood plains as the storm water runs through the Murray River and out to the mouth, however increased levels of pooled water on properties together with hot summer weather will mean there is a real risk for all property owners.
Encephalitis is rare and in most cases if you contract it the symptoms will be mild. Sadly that wasn’t to be for my Dad, who contracted Encephalitis seven years ago. He’s still with us however he can no longer farm, drive a vehicle, his fine motor are greatly impaired and he has short term memory loss. I always say that outwardly it looks like dementia, but it is so much more.
Unfortunately due to the scarcity of the vaccine, vaccinations are only available to people who live in identified high risk areas. However, if you reduce the opportunities for mosquitoes you’re half way there. The other really important thing to do, particularly in rural areas is to remove any water-holding containers where mosquitoes may breed. So, old feed troughs, watering cans, clogged gutters, unused garden pots etcetera.
I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, it truly ruins lives, so please, do what you can to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. SA Health have some good information on their website so I’ll put the link in the show notes.

05:49 Fire Season Crucial Insight

Hopefully you have taken up the opportunity to upgrade your farm fire units following the incentive scheme run by the CFS. Farm Fire fighting units are an important early response to fire events and the CFS is really pushing to get as many of them on the ground as possible.
The other thing we’ve done is install a sprinkler system on our roof, powered by a petrol driven fire fighter pump. We also have a Rain Aid valve on our tanks which means if the water level gets too low, it automatically switches to mains water. This is really important if you consider the likelihood of needing significant water in case of fire only to find that there is very little left.
And we check and do a service on our system regularly.
Pods taught me how to run the fire fighting system last year and I recorded my lesson and published it on the socials. Here is the link to my fire fighting system training. It’s a handy guide for those of us who are not super familiar with irrigation pumps etcetera.

07:12 Salvation Jane

Salvation Jane – that old chestnut! We recently went out to a property that was completely covered in 3 foot high Salvation Jane. It was appalling and just so sad to see. There is no quick fix for Salvation Jane – I repeat, NO. QUICK. FIX.
Salvation Jane can be sprayed over a number of years but it has to be at the right time.
I took a few photos of the area including a MONSTER of a plant that had a stem about 15cm wide! The plants need to be in their growth stage.
The seeds can lay dormant in the soil for around 20 years. Like I said, no quick fix. The best thing to do is to keep on top of it and treat small outbreaks when they occur. We covered Salvation Jane in a blog post several years ago and the information is still relevant today. Here’s a link to an updated Salvation Jane factsheet from Pirsa.

11:46 Farmcast Interview: Pods and Shane Collins, CEO of the Oakbank Racing Club

In this interview, Pods chats with CEO of the Oakbank Racing Club, Shane Collins about what it takes to prepare the track for summer race meetings.

And he recorded this interview on the track itself!

21:01 Interview with Megan Miller

Megan has several breeds of goats including dairy goats and miniature goats. They are all adorable, incredibly friendly and affectionate and they really do make good pets!

Megan talks to us about what you need to keep in mind if you’re keen to have goats on your property and she covers off on some of the common myths.

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This month, our Adelaide Hills Farmcast is focussed on hay.

It's been a very long and wet season and we need to consider the implications for fodder availability in the new year.

I rang my good friend, James Stacey from Bremer River Fodder and chatted to him about what it all means.

Unfortunately there is no good news however there are ways that you can mitigate the risks if you rely on hay to feed your stock so we've covered that in this month's Farmcast.

And we've included a couple more interviews that we did at the Small Acreage Field Days last month. First up is David George from Emmetts at Oakbank followed by James Gilbert from Half A Cow.

And finally, I chat with Jane Somers from Big Sky Flowers in Brukunga. I'm so inspired by what she is achieving on a small property and in a relatively short space of time.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

You can play the episode, below, or search for Adelaide Hills Farmcast in your favourite podcast app, on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast November Edition

Introduction

02:14 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Hay & Horse Fodder!

It's not going to come as a surprise that the industry is forecasting significant shortages of hay this season. And what hay that is available will potentially be at a lower quality and yet, more expensive to buy. There are a number of reasons that will contribute to this. Firstly and most obviously, we've had a very wet finish to the growing season. Many paddocks have been cut but in the process of curing further Spring rains have lead to a decrease in the quality of the hay. In addition to the wet weather, there has been a significant increase in the cost of fertiliser, chemicals and of course, diesel.
It's more important than ever to source your hay from a hay producer or trader who is able to provide you with a feedtest. This will ensure that you're buying hay that will meet your needs. For example, there is a big difference in the type of hay you need to purchase if you're just wanting it for roughage or to grow out stock. The Feedtest website provides some good information on Metabolisable Energy and Crude Protein levels of various grains and hays. It's well worth a look.
If you want accurate information on the nutritional needs of your stock, Agriculture Victoria have a handy feed calculator you can check out here.
Every year, James Stacey from Bremer River Fodder says that initial sales of small hay bales is quite slow. However demand skyrockets in the new year when paddock grasses bare off and supplementary feeding begins. This sudden increase in demand - particularly in years like this one when supply is low, will mean many buyers can be caught out. Of course, this can be avoided by planning ahead, buying in advance of when you know you are going to need it. Growers will usually store any pre-bought hay until you need it.

Gardens

It's official. My strawberry crop is a fail. Last year it was rabbits so I thought I'd get clever and plant strawberries in hanging baskets. This year, it's Magpies. It seems I can't win. I think I'd better leave it to the experts like Green Valley Strawberries!
I spotted a great product in amongst Jon Lamb's Good Gardening newsletter this week. It's called Potstream. It's It’s a side mounted watering solution for potted plants and containers. The distributor has some great information and a very clear diagram of how you can potentially set it up. You can download the Poststream Factsheet here or go to their website. I couldn't find too many local distributors however Brighton Irrigation seems to be your best bet.

Spot & Boom Spraying

It can be a tricky time of year to be spraying selective herbicides like MCPA or Dicamba. You don't need to go too far in the Adelaide Hills to find a vineyard and with vines budding up now, there is a real risk of spray drift if the utmost caution isn't taken. This is where engaging a fully qualified and insured spray technician (like Pods!) becomes so important. Please, please be carful if you're spraying your own paddocks at the moment and if in doubt, talk to whoever you buy your chemicals from or have a chat with Pods.

18:59 Farmcast Interview: Pods and David George from Emmetts at Oakbank

David George from Emmetts Oakbank talking with Patrick O'Driscoll from Adelaide Hills Farm Services

24:58 Farmcast Interview: Pods talks with James Gilbert from Half a Cow

Pods and James Gilbert from Half a Cow

29:23 Farmcast Interview: Belle talks with Jane Somers from Big Sky Flowers, Brukunga

Jane Somers, Big Sky Flowers and Belle Baker, Adelaide Hills Farm Services

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This month’s Farmcast is a cracker! I had Pods in the studio (aka – cramped home office) because the rain had stopped work outside again.

So I had his help in recording the Almanac and it was good to get some information about what weeds can be sprayed this time of year directly from him.

We went to the Small Acreage Field Day in late September and recorded a number of interviews. We’ve included three of them here; Arnd from Mobishear Australia; Megan from Dairy Goats Society of South Australia and Nic Kentish from RCS Australia. We’ll hold over the other interviews for another Farmcast down the track.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

You can play the episode, below, or search for Adelaide Hills Farmcast in your favourite podcast app, on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

00:00 Adelaide Hills Farmcast October Edition

Introduction

02:35 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Livestock

Fly Blown Sheep Spring is a notoriously bad time for fly strike in your sheep. And yes – even your pet Dorpers and other self-shedding sheep are prone to fly strike. One of the early signs to look out for is ‘Unthrifty Sheep’. According to the Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania an unthrifty sheep is one that is not eating properly, is losing condition, tends to lag behind the mob when moved and, in severe cases, is clearly weak. A worm problem often (but not always) results in sheep scouring and becoming daggy. Flyboss.com.au is a wonderful resource for determining the correct treatment of fly blown sheep.

Alpacas

It’s time to shear your Alpacas or if you’re not doing it yourself, you’ll need to book in a shearer. The South Australian Alpaca Association website lists a number of Alpaca Shearers, you’ll be sure to find one that’s available.
Mobishear interview.

Gardens

My garden is struggling to thrive because I’ve got rabbits roaming around like they own the place…and we have so much clay. I’m adding a mix of Gypsum, sandy/loam and compost in areas that we intend to plant next year. I had thought I was going overboard a little, but then a Google search reviled this short instructional video by ABC Gardening back in 2016. I think I might be on the money.

Horses

Let me tell you about a few fun problems that horses can have when they spend extended time on muddy and wet ground!
Greasy heel or mud fever. It presents as lesions, a greasy appearance, or hair loss on lower limbs typically around heels. Treatment is an antibacterial wash and keeping the horse off wet ground.
Thrush is another one and is easily diagnosed by a foul smell from the hoof, and discharge from the frog. Treatment is best in the form of thoroughly cleaning the hooves, treating them with an iodine solution and making sure that dirty stable bedding is replaced with clean dry bedding.
Hoof abscesses present as acute lameness in a particular leg, often as the result of eliminating lameness further up the leg. The use of hoof testers or a farrier may be needed to accurately diagnose the abscess.

Spot & Boom Spraying

Pods says you should be doing know-down spraying along fence lines, around stock yards etc with a glyphosate. Including silver grass, barley grass, brome grass and rye grass.
Pods also suggests that, like Prue from Echunga who rang up during our FIVEaa interview with Richard Pascoe (link to the FIEaa interview HERE), its time to start thinking about spraying your Blackberry.

Bush Fire Preparation

A light reminder to make a start…
If you need your paddocks slashed, we recommend you call Jake from Adelaide Hills Slashing. In addition to his slasher, Jake has invested in a remote control (industrial) lawn mower that can handle inclines of up to 55 degrees.

Farmcast Interview: Pods and Megan Miller from the Dairy Goat Society of SA

It was wonderful to talk with Megan and get a better understanding of goat breeds and what each breed is used for. The most fascinating thing we learnt was

Goats do NOT make good lawnmowers. Goats are browsers like deer, not grazers like sheep. The best breed to mow your lawn is a Victa. (Or a John Deere Zero-Turn Lawnmower…)

Please note: We had technical issues with Megan’s interview, so we’ll need to regroup with her because she had some very enlightening things to share. Can we say the goat ate our homework?

20:51 Farmcast Interview: Pods talks with Nic Kentish from RCS & the Rotary Club of Stirling

Nic Kentish is one of the volunteers at the Rotary Club of Stirling that put together the Small Acreage Field Day.

He is also an advisor, facilitator and coach with Resource Consulting Services Australia or RCS.

27:06 Farmcast Interview: Belle talks with John Koumi and the team from Maccy Biochar

Maccy Biochar operates a not for profit community biochar centre in Macclesfield, South Australia. We take your dead woody material and convert it to biochar to use as the basis for earth-friendly fertilizers for home and farm; and for other biochar-based products.

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In this month's Farmcast, Belle Baker from Adelaide Hills Farm Services talks about the upcoming sheep or ram sales season and where you can get some more information. She also talks about what you can do to prevent blowfly strike in your sheep - and did you know it's fox mating season right now?

Pods chats to Richard Pascoe the Adelaide Tech Guy about the unlikely yet possible risk of your ag-tech equipment submitting to a harmful cyber attack and Belle talks with Jackson Adams, their senior workman about fence posts - the varieties on offer and the unfortunate truth when working with this natural product.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

You can play the episode, below, or search for Adelaide Hills Farmcast in your favourite podcast app, on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast September Edition

Introduction

01:51 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

September and October is the main selling season for sheep and rams in South Australia. Most larger sales also list on Auctions Plus so this is a good catch all to find all sales (for all sorts of livestock) near you.
We live in hope that the weather will start to warm up however with that its time to start thinking about preventing blowfly strike in your sheep. According to a factsheet published by the Victorian Farmers Federation, flystrike occurs when the causative fly feeds off damaged skin caused by urine, diarrhoea or by the continual wetting of fleece resulting in a condition known as fleece rot. Flystrike isn't hard to prevent however it is horrid to treat - both for you and the sheep! Get in first, stay vigilant and shear, crutch, manage their worm burden regularly.

Predators - Foxes

Did you know that Landholders are responsible for the control of foxes on their properties under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019? And did you know that its Fox mating season right now?There are a number of legal ways you can manage foxes including shooting, cage trapping, coordinated baiting, soft jaw leg-hold trapping and den fumigation. This may not be as easy as it sounds so the best thing you can do is lock up your chooks and make sure of the integrity of their enclosures.Alpacas can be used to ward off potential predators of young lambs however there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, you must introduce the Alpaca to the flock before lambing so that they have an opportunity to bond and hence protect the herd. One Alpaca to around 20 sheep is fine. If you have too many Alpaca's in one paddock they will form their own herd and not be inclined to protect the sheep and lambs. Its also important to have an Alpaca with a good attitude - nothing too aggressive (definitely not a job for complete males) as you must be able to work with the sheep and Alpaca for the usual animal health jobs (drenching, shearing, feet trimming and teeth trimming for Alpacas).

Weeds - Salvation Jane (Patterson's Curse)

Salvation Jane emerges in Winter and dies down in Summer. Honey producers love it - all hail the power of the pollen - however your pastures will suffer under this prolific weed and it has the potential to be extremely toxic to horses.There are a number of control methods that can be used including slashing, spraying and probably the most effective is a spray/graze program. We talked a lot about Salvation Jane in a blog post we did in November 2022. You can read it again here.

In Other News...

The Hills Small Acreage Field Days will be held at the Echunga Recreation Grounds on the 24th and 25th of September. You can find out more by going to their website. You might even see us there with our recording equipment...

07:16 Farmcast Interview: Pods Richard Pascoe talk about the security of your Ag-Tech products

There's been a fresh round of media coverage about a hacker getting into a John Deere tractor's computer and installing a game.

This raises the question of Ag Tech security.

The Adelaide Techguy, Richard Pascoe, has a chat with Pods about how to keep your farm-based technology safe.

18:15 Farmcast Interview: Belle Baker and Jackson Adams discuss posts used for rural fencing

Are all fence posts the same?

The answer is no.

As we discuss in this interview with one of the the Adelaide Hills Farm Services team, Jackson Adams, natural fence posts come with natural variations in size and width and manufacturers have a knack of burying a few brumbies in the middle of the strapped up bundles we buy.

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast August Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for in the coming months.

Also, remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you're playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast August Edition

Introduction

02:19 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Livestock

Even shedding sheep can benefit from crutching. There are a number of shearing contractors in the Adelaide Hills. And I hear Jono's Sheep Shearing Services have recently upgraded their shearing trailer.He could be worth a call before everyone finds out!If you plan to keep sheep for the long term it may be worthwhile investing in a hand held shearing handpiece. You can buy them online or talk to your local reseller.
Check out the Sa Junior Heifer Expo here. It's a fabulous annual event for 8-24 year old cattle enthusiasts.

Pastures

The days are getting a little longer and the sun is shining a little more. Spraying Capeweed is back on the agenda.
If you're planing on cutting hay this year its time to lock up your pastures. But if you'd rather spare yourself the expense of making meadow hay, the best way to find good quality hay for your stock is to contact your local reseller. They may have some in stock or will be able to give you the contact details of a commercial grower.

Irrigation

It's always best to check and maintain your infrastructure before you need it. Your pumps have a lot of moving parts and if they break down in summer you could have difficulty getting a technician out to do repairs when you need them.If you've got an older system, you may consider upgrading to an irritation system that can be automated and monitored on your smart phone. We've recently done some work with Irrigation Pumps and More at Totness. Their knowledge and range of products is terrific - we'd definitely recommend you talk to them about your options.

10:04 Farmcast Interview: Kiera Campagnola and Sarah Truan talk with Belle Baker

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast July Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for in the coming months. We’ll cover weaning your lambs and calves and how to avoid grass Tetney. This episode was recorded with Alex Thomas from #plantaseedforsafety – a rural social change initiative that puts health, safety and wellbeing front of mind.

And Pods talks with Ashley Davidson from Woodshield Posts about the benefits of using this certified organic fencing solution.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au.

Also, remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you’re playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast July Edition

Introduction

03:07 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Livestock

The key factors in determining when to wean your lambs or calves is to ensure they are large enough and that you have immediate access to good quantities and quality feed. Growing stock will be on a rising plane of nutrition meaning they need an increasing amount of fodder to maintain their weight and to grow.
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) have published a handy guide – you can read it here. And if you want to read some research on how heifers and cows on a rising plane of nutrition positively impacts pregnancy rates, there is a good article here.
Grass Tetany can be a real issue in high rainfall regions like the Adelaide Hills. In simple terms, it’s caused when magnesium levels get down to a critical level. It’s most common in lactating animals over 5/6 years old. There are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of Grass Tetany including offering hay, a salt lick and ensuring there is a steady source of feed. Elders Rural has a short, informative article here, and MLA provide more technical details here.

Pastures

Post-emergent spraying continues
Its time to consider whether you’re going to fertilise your pastures. If you are, please consider booking your contractor now.
Winter is a good time to spread any old mouldy hay over bare patches in your paddocks. They should grow and fill in the patches.

Water

Whilst your water sources throughout winter should be in good supply, continual run-off into dams can cause some contamination. It’s fairly easy to tell if you have a problem, your stock will be avoiding drinking it. If in doubt, we suggest you do a water quality test.

Productive Gardens

Have you finished pruning your roses and fruit trees?
I’ve had a wonderful package from Mr Fothergill’s so this month I’m planting Asparagus, and a thorn-free Blackberry, Red Current and Boysenberry Fruit Trees.

17:04 Farmcast Interview: Pods and Ashley Davidson talk about Woodshield Posts

27:06 Farmcast Co-host: Alex Thomas, Nairne

July’s Farmcast was recorded on our property on the outskirts of Littlehampton.

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast June Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for in the coming months. We'll cover topics such as calf marking and lamb marking, and what other animal husbandry tasks can be done whilst you've got them in the yards.

This episode was recorded near Woodside at the property of Jo and Sandy Gunter. Sandy talks to me about their recovery from the Cudlee Creek Bushfire and why she chose Polvin Fencing to replace the fencing around her day yards and horse arena.

And Pods and David Evans from Farmers Business Network talk about post-emergent spraying.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

Also, remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you're playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast June Edition

Introduction

01:35 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Livestock

Early June is a good time for calf or lamb marking. Of course this depends on when your calves or lambs were born. If you’re relatively inexperienced and only have to mark a handful of stock every year then the smaller the animal, the easier it’s going to be for you. Any time when the animal is over (approximately) 3 weeks is good. Any earlier and there is a risk of mis-mothering. I found a really informative and easy to read article on castrating beef cattle by the Kondinin Group, linked here: https://www.farmingahead.com.au/beef/news/1330648/when-to-castrate-beef-calves
Because you’ll have all your cows and calves / sheep and lambs in the yards, marking is generally combined with:
- administering a B12 injection
- 5 in 1 vaccination for your lambs
- dehorning or debudding – only relevant for horned breeds, most breeds of cattle that we frequently see in the Adelaide Hills are polled breeds like Murray Gray, Angus and Belted Galloway
- backline parasitic spray for control of internal and external parasites
- Tagging for the National Livestock Identification System and any of your own property recording system
So it becomes quite an efficient process – you can get quite a lot done once the mob is in the yards. Of course, working safely in your yards – for both you and your stock – is paramount. Lucky you listened to our March Farmcast and did some routine maintenance of your yards – remember me talking about Maintenance-March? It has quite a ring to it really!! If you’re not confident to mark your bull calves or ram lambs, it's not a bad idea to work in with a neighbour or engage a contractor. There are a few around the Adelaide Hills who can help – a call out on one of the local Chat groups through your socials should give you a list of who you can call.

Productive Gardens

This month I’m planting Strawberries for the first time – ever! And its also a good time to plant Rhubarb and globe artichokes. Now I have to admit, I’m going to be planting my strawberries in hanging baskets. As you may have heard me mention before, we haven’t quite got our rabbit problem under control. Fortunately, rabbits can’t jump so I’m using height as my main defence. Now I was just going to plonk strawberry seedlings into a good potting mix, sprinkle around some water and wish them good luck, but then I thought I’d do a bit of research first. And I’m so glad I did! Growing strawberries is a lot trickier than I could ever have imagined. So if you’re like me and new to growing strawberries here are a few tips and facts that may help you.
Strawberries need to be planted in a slightly acidic soil with a ph between 5.5 and 7. They need heaps of good compost, worm castings or poo manure (but whatever you do, don’t use mushroom compost or any chicken poo)
If you’re planting strawberry runners rather than seedlings here’s where it gets technical. You’re supposed to dig out quite a large hole then mound some dirt in the middle. Remove any dead or old roots leaving nice bright white roots around the crown. Put the crown on the mound and arrange the roots down and around the crown. Then it’s time to backfill the hole and water it in. Now having done this research and going into a cold sweat I decided to delay my plans for planting strawberries. With fresh optimism the next day I realised that this is probably how commercial strawberries are planted. So I’m going to get really brave and start planting this weekend.
Once the dirty work is done add a thick layer of mulch followed by a layer of fresh straw between the plants to prevent fungal disease and prevent weeds. And then it’s finally time to sprinkle around some water and wish them luck!

Pastures

Our attention this month turns to post emergent spray programs. A post emergent spray program is simply a foliar application of herbicide after the target weeds have emerged from the soil.
The timing, rate of chemical and chemical selection is all dependant upon so may factors including the weather or environmental conditions, species of crop, pasture to be sprayed, size of weeds present together with the species of weeds present. We’ve accumulated this agronomic knowledge over a lifetime of farming but if you’re unsure, please reach out to farming contractors like Adelaide Hills Farm Services or contact your local resellers.
In this month’s interview with Pods, David Evans touches on the importance of undertaking a Chem Cert course. This short, one day course is now available online and it’s the ideal course for small acerage or lifestyle property owners wanting more information and that peace of mind that comes with knowing more about the chemicals you’re using on your property. I’ve included a link to the Chem Cert that we put our employees through in the show notes.

14:43 Farmcast Interview: Pods and David Evans discuss post emergent spraying

30:41 Farmcast Co-host: Sandy Gunter, Woodside

June's Farmcast was recorded near Woodside on a property owned by Jo and Sandy Gunter. Sandy talks with me about what they do on their property and what it's taken to recover from the Cudlee Creek bushfires.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast April Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for in May. We'll cover topics such as getting a PIC number, the mating habits of Alpacas and when to look out for red-legged earth mites.

This episode was recorded on the outskirts of Littlehampton at The Littlewood Agapanthus Farm. My generous hosts Tracey and John Cook have been here 6 year and in her own words, Tracey tells me its been a steep learning curve!

And Pods and I have a chat about the availability of fencing products and what this means for you.

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

Also, remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you're playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast May Edition

Introduction

02:03 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

Livestock

Did you know that if livestock is born, sold, sent to an abattoir or kept as pets your property must have a PIC (Property Identification Code) Number. The cost is nominal (currently $93/2 years) and the process is easily completed online via the PIRSA website. The reason I'm suggesting that you get on to this minor administrative job now is that I'm hearing that there is up to an 8-9 week wait for new PIC numbers! If you are keen to move some livestock off your property before it gets too wet or inaccessible it might be a good idea to start the process now!

Alpacas

I recently attended an 'Alpaca New Owners' information day held at Mount Pleasent. It was hosted by the Porter family of Yakka Ridge Alpaca fame and supported by the Australian Alpaca Association. I can honestly say that it was the most wonderfully practical and informative breed 'Open Day' that I have ever attended. I learnt some really interesting facts about Alpacas, their anatomy, management needs and their foibles! I was given a comprehensive handbook on 'Managing Alpacas in Australia' - an easy to read guide that reinforced everything I learned on the day. To their credit, The Australian Alpaca Association encourages all registered breeders to give a copy of this guide to new owners when they sell an Alpaca. This is a fabulous initiative that I would like to encourage other breed societies (cattle, sheep, goats, horses) to consider introducing. Particularly those that are popular among smaller lifestyle farmers.

If you own an Alpaca or three and you haven't given much thought to them aside from shearing them annually, here is a list of things to consider (and a few Alpaca facts that blew my mind!)

Alpacas are members of the Camel or Camelids family. As such, they have toes, not hooves! Their toes need regular trimming at least 6 monthly – using a pair of garden shears works well.
Alpaca teeth can need grinding down.
May is the ideal time to administer their annual vaccine (if you didn’t do it at shearing time) and a drench.
Alpacas are susceptible to a deficiency in Vitamin D
If you have or want to get Alpacas to act as Guardians at lambing time, you must introduced them to the flock at least a month before lambing so that they bond with the flock.
Female Alpaca’s have what’s called induced ovulation. They don’t ovulate regularly like other animals, they only ovulate when a male alpaca is introduced to the yard or paddock

Productive Gardens

Now is the time to give your garden a bit of love. It’s the perfect time to add fertiliser to your soils and get your garden beds ready for planting again
It could be a good time to try the lasagna method or Hugalkultur process for putting together your garden beds.
Look out for snails - they love hiding under your Agapanthus!

Pastures

According to Michael Bowden at Hills Farm Supplies, May is the time to look out for emerging weeds such as capeweed, geranium, flat weed, barley grass and silver grases (to name a few)

If you're not sure which weeds you have, snap a photo and take it into your local Agri reseller or send it through to us. We're always here to help!
The window for spraying Blackberry is over for now. We won't be spraying any until November when they are back in their growing phase.

23:15 Farmcast Interview: Belle and Pods and scarcity of fence posts

29:14 Farmcast Co-host: Tracey Cook - Littlewood Agapanthus Farm

May's Farmcast was recorded at the Littlewood Agapanthus Farm with Tracey Cook. Tracey is a self-taught gardener and very happy to share her knowledge. It's a wonderfully animated discussion (Tracey also talks with her hands!) and whilst my personal nemesis is rabbits, Tracey is at war with European Wasps. Keep listening for Tracey's proven method of identifying and getting rid of these horrible insects.

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast April Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for in April. We'll cover everything from fecal egg counts in sheep, drenching programs, and snails.

This episode was recorded at Mount Barker Springs at the home of Kate Phillips and James Trebilcock. They have goats, heritage breed chooks, sheep, horses and dogs the size of horses!

And Patrick (Pods) O'Driscoll has a chat with Rob Murphy from the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board about your options for rabbit control. The good news is; none of the methods work on the Easter Bunny!

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@ahfarmservices.com.au

Also, remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you're playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:38 Adelaide Hills Farmcast March Edition

Introduction

01:30 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm CalendarSheep

Make sure stock are getting enough feed – especially pregnant or lactating sheep (and cows)
Conduct a worm (fecal) egg countZoetis has some easy to read information about the importance of drenching your sheep on their website. https://www.zoetis.com.au/livestock-solutions/sheep/effective-parasite-management/best-practice-drenching.aspx
Stephen Love who is (or was) the NSW State Worm Control Coordinator has written a number of articles and contributed to a lot of informative newsletters. If you're interested in reading more technical information on parasites in sheep, this is a good article chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dpi.nsw.gov.au%2F__data%2Fassets%2Fpdf_file%2F0011%2F70499%2FRegistered-drenches-for-sheep-worms-Primefact-152.pdf or go to the NSW DPI website and search for a topic from there. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/animals-and-livestock/sheep/health

Fruit Trees and productive gardens

First and foremost you need to be thinking about good hygiene and cleaning up under your fruit trees.
Autumn is when you should be applying liquid fertilisers
You might be starting to note a few snails around your property or hanging around the edges of your kitchen garden.One rather satisfying way to get rid of snails is to go looking for them and squash them on site! The best way to manage snails in large areas is to prevent them. Spray fence lines and any areas that accumulate weeds – in and around sheep and cattle yard is a classic! Or - The other option is to cultivate the ground. There are quite a few organic or natural methods you can try to manage snails and their ugly cousins, slugs including applying coffee grounds https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/pest-animals/snail-and-slug-control

Pastures

This is the time to be applying single fertilisers. Which fertiliser you’re applying will depend on the results of the soil test you did earlier this year…Most soils throughout the Adelaide Hills are low in Phosphorus so that is a good place to start. This is also the time of year to spread Lime and Gypsum.We have a few clients booked in to spread Lime in April. Lime increases the Ph of the soil. This will release or make the trace elements more accessible. On a smaller scale, Gypsum is very handy around the home garden.Please, please, book your contractors early - there is a shortage in the Adelaide Hills so this is not something you want to leave until the last minute!

Horses

This is covered by Kate in her interview, but the main points she covered were:

There is an increase risk of Laminitis in horses and (fat) ponies. As such, Kate manages their food intake by supplementary feeding in stables and limiting their time on green pastures.
Collecting horse dung and taking it to the vet for analysis of worm burden so that the right type and amount of drench can be administered. Kate keeps up a strict regime of drenching every 12 weeks.
The horse rugs are retrieved and checked for holes, damage and cleanliness ready for regular use as the seasons get colder.
Responsible horse ownership requires a constant program of care. Kate's horses see a dentist every 6 months, the farrier every 8 weeks and she maintains a good relationship with her Vet in case she needs to call them out of normal office hours.

12:10 Farmcast Interview: Rob Murphy

Pods caught up with Rob Murphy from the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board in Littlehampton recently. He wanted to discuss the options for the control of Rabbits and dispel some of the myths around the preference and safety of some of the methods. It turns out that the best solution is a combination of many!

23:26 Farmcast Co-host: Kate Phillips

April's Farmcast was recorded at the home of Kate Phillips and James Trebilcock on their property at Mount Barker Springs. Here Kate talks about her background in Agriculture, her time in Japan running a Trail Riding School and what she will be doing with her horses in April.

I brought along a few cheeses from Section 28 Cheesewrights in Woodside to share with Kate. Their flavours are strong and ideal to accompany a good red. Today we peared them with Oakbank Flavours Fruit Pastes. There are so many small or artisan providores in the Adelaide Hills. If you know of a delicious local food we need to try as we traipse our way around the Hills, please let me know.

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In the Adelaide Hills Farmcast March Edition, Belle Baker looks at farming jobs Adelaide Hills lifestyle farmers should be planning for during March and April. We’ll cover everything from yard maintenance before the winter rain sets in, lamb vaccinations, and even Bott Eggs to keep your horses in top condition.

We recorded this episode in the home of Catherine McLeod, who has a unique way of naming her paddocks.

And Patrick (Pods) O’Driscoll has a quick chat with Stud Stock auctioneer from Nutrien Ag, Gordon Wood, how to choose a bull to cover your cows or heifers

We hope you find this show helpful and welcome your comments below or email Belle or Pods at hello@adelaidehillsfarmservices.com.au.

You can play the episode, below, or search for Adelaide Hills Farmcast in your favourite podcast app, on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

Also remember that each episode has chapter markers, so when you’re playing, you can skip to the next section easily.

00:30 Adelaide Hills Farmcast March Edition

Introduction

01:18 Adelaide Hills Farm Almanac / Farm Calendar

We have spent many years living and working on farms and together we have distilled some best practices, farm management schedules, and some handy tricks. We’ve captured these ideas into our own Adelaide Hills Farming Almanac, so that the experience of broad acre farming around South Australia can be adapted to the specific needs of the Adelaide Hills. And we’ve also modified our entries with the Lifestyle Farmer in mind.

Here are the notes about topics and tasks worth concentrating on over the next couple of months, which we’ve grouped together in different sections.

Cattle

With winter rains just a few months away, this early part of autumn is the perfect time to deal with cattleyard maintenance and truck access before things get muddy or overgrown.

This can be as simple as

Checking your yards for protruding nails and rusting rails. The last thing you want is ripping skin and damaging carcases, potentially not allowing the stock to be transported to either market or abattoir. The term we use for this is ‘Dark Cutter’. If you’d like to look further into this the NSW Department of Primary Industries has some good information here.
Give gate latches a clean-up, remove any built-up debris so that you get a good closure and give them some love with a spray of oil or lubricant like WD-40
Spray weeds and whipper snipper around areas of the yards – particularly the areas that aren’t used frequently. – helps with drainage during the wet winter months.
Truck access – Trucks must be able to pull into your cattle yards and be completely off the road. Good time to put rubble in pot holes and build up or repair truck turning circles

Pods and Catherine take one final look at the cattleyards before they get removed to make way for the new yards

SafeWork SA has a no-nonsense guide to livestock loading and transport safety – it’s well worth a quick read.

Sheep

Pre lambing vaccination for April / May Drop
Glanvac® 6 provides sheep and goats with protection against Cheesy Gland (CLA) and the five main clostridial diseases; black disease, black leg, malignant oedema, pulpy kidney, and tetanus. Vaccines can be purchased at rural resellers / retailers in the Adelaide Hills. A handy list is provided at the end of the show notes.
Ideally 4 -6 weeks prior to Lambing
Over handling heavy in Lamb Ewes increases the risk of stress to the animal and potentially causing a toxemia highly likely resulting in death.
It’s worthwhile adding calcium and magnesium supplements for the ewes before they start lactating – suggest putting these out once you return them to their paddock after their vaccination.
Working out gestation period – when your ewes are going to lamb: cousinsms.com.au have a great app on their website.

Shedding Sheep

Dorpers, Wiltipoll and Australian White Sheep are the most common that we see in the Adelaide Hills
Although they are all ‘self shedding’, they don’t always shed their entire fleece. We do see cases of fly strike or body strike in these sheep.
Sam Kelly, an Agricultural Science student at Adelaide University has written a blog post for us – we’ll let you know when it’s live!
Important that your shedding sheep get a complete shed – we suggest doing a clean up with shears or a hand piece.

Australian White Sheep are a relatively new breed of ‘shedding’ sheep.Pastures

Prior Planning Prevents Pathetic Pastures – or so the saying goes…

March is a good time to get soil tests done. This allows for decisions to be made with regards to the type of Fertiliser to be added to enhance productivity and the amount required, together with predicting and planning weed and disease management. Planning is paramount to any decision making process and ultimately, the success.

Weed Management

Blackberry grows wild in the Adelaide Hills

Control of Blackberries and Gorse should be undertaken in the very late spring/summer and autumn period when these weeds are actively growing. Risks and factors to take into consideration include potential spray drift and off-target impacts, waterways and other environmental impacts. It is best to speak to a local agronomist who will provide information for your particular situation and then to employ a fully qualified Pest and Disease and Weed Control Spray Contractor (like Pods!)

Horses

Bots eggs come from bot flies, which lay their eggs on the legs, neck and shoulders of horses
Horses lick the eggs and ingest them, which potentially causes issues in their mouth and stomach. Bot flies can cause stomach ulcers in horses which can be difficult and expensive to manage.
Prevention is the key – use a bot knife or razor to remove them, making sure that the eggs are removed from the paddock and disposed of. This really needs to be done twice a day while when bot flies are present. Some people wipe the eggs with turps before scraping with the knife as this stops them from sticking to the horses’ hair. Keeping horses in cotton or mesh rugs prevents flies from laying eggs on the shoulders/ neck, but doesn’t help with the legs.
Although bots and bot eggs aren’t worms, they can be managed with wormers containing ivermectin, abamectin or maxidectin. These should be given to horses that are suspected to have a bot egg burden internally.

More information can be found on the Pony Club Australia website

Alpacas

Nothing in this section this month.

Livestock (General)

Nothing in this section this month.

Fruit Trees

Nothing in this section this month.

Gardens (General)

Nothing in this section this month.

We recommend these Rural Resellers/Retailers in the Adelaide Hills:

Hills Farm Supplies, Mount Barker

DJ Growers, Woodside

Coopers Mylor

Coopers Mt Torrens / Mt Pleasent

14:51 Farmcast Interview

Pods was out at the Newlyn Park Angus Bull Sale recently and took stud stock auctioneer, Gordon Wood aside for a quick chat to get some tips for anybody running or considering buying in some cattle.

Gordon Wood, Nutrien Ag and Pods discuss bulls selection at a recent sale in the Adelaide Hills

Here are the main questions Pods asked:

What are the three main characteristics you should be looking for in your bulls?
Is there a difference in the type of bull you would use to cover your heifers versus your cows?
What is the ideal time to put your bull in with the heifers or cows?
What would you recommend to have in place on your property if you were to buy a bull?

Most on property stock sales are also featured through the online buying platform Auctions Plus. It’s worth keeping an eye out for what’s happening in and around the Adelaide Hills.

23:47 Farmcast Co-host: Catherine McLeod

Catherine McLeod catches up with Belle Baker on her property at Biggs Flat in the Adelaide Hills

I’ve known Catherine for a while now. Pods and I first met her and her partner Marc Appels when they were wanting to improve their fences so that they could run a small herd of cattle.

She was a great host today for the podcast, and I asked her a few questions to share more of her background.

We also shared some delicious strawberries from Green Valley Strawberries including their new, highly acclaimed freeze-dried strawberry chocolates!

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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